Not only did Thomas shepherd the forklifts along (they remain in production), but one customer also discovered that a cold-starting problem that had existed with the old forklifts did not exist with Thomas's forklifts. No changes had been made to the starting mechanisms. "The company looked into it," says Thomas, "and discovered that the drivers were parking these new forklifts inside at night. They liked these forklifts better, and because they liked them better, they were taking better care of them. The passion goes all the way through. You end up with something that is more than the sum of its parts."

Thomas strives for simplicity. The fewer the lines, he says, the clearer the story that a car tells. Beyond cars, his taste is a blend of simplicity and functionality. "I like the Weber grill: two sides, three legs. It's a piece of Americana. I like the classic yellow school bus. I like the good old American postbox, with the red flag up. What is more exciting than getting mail?"

Thomas never has trouble communicating his own passion. His ordinariness drops away when he starts talking, conveying not only his judgment but also his energy.

"He generates so much enthusiasm and so much emotion in the studio," says Jesse Alexander, the photojournalist who watched Thomas work for several months. "The people around him get caught up in it."

Frank Saucedo worked for Thomas at the VW/Audi studio in Simi Valley, and succeeded him as chief designer there this summer. "For Freeman, no idea was too crazy. Every idea was valid. The question was 'How does the idea fit into the scenario?' Freeman's a storyteller. The Beetle speaks to the heritage of VW. Likewise, the TT is about Audi's long history: It's about racing; it's about technology; it's about Auto Union [the manufacturing conglomerate of the 1930s that Audi was a part of]. And it's also totally original."

Thomas arrives at DaimlerChrysler with a fascinating pedigree for the job he's taken. DaimlerChrysler is struggling with how to merge two very different corporate cultures: the very German Stuttgart and the very American Auburn Hills. Thomas is a product of those same two cultures: a German mother and an American dad. His father was an air-traffic controller for the U.S. Air Force, and he can tell you what cars his family had during postings in Oslo, Madrid, and Athens. Thomas -- the same Thomas who had won a contest for drawing a fire engine -- became a fireman in the U.S. Air Force after high school. He was crew chief of a crash rescue team assigned to a squadron of F-111s.

Having gone to school, lived, and worked in California, he is steeped in that state's cruising culture. And he is steeped in the European auto culture, which he admires, having spent much of his professional career in Europe. This is the first time that Thomas has worked for one of the big American automakers, and the first time that he's worked in Detroit.

Thomas often speaks of "being willing to put my head on the chopping block" -- not only to come up with unusual designs, like the forklifts, but to explain them until their stories make sense.

"My job here is to encourage designers to take risks," he says, "to look at what they are doing, and to help them bring greatness to the surface. Most important, my job is to help them create a story. Car designers need to create a story. Every car provides an opportunity to create an adventure."

Thomas likes the way that DaimlerChrysler is organized into product teams -- an approach that means that designers work from the very beginning with engineering and marketing people. As a result, designs don't develop in a vacuum, or get mugged later by technical problems. "I've been able to work at double speed here compared to what I was able to do at VW/Audi," he says, just one month into the job.

Some auto-industry observers have expressed concern over the course of the DaimlerChrysler combination, but Thomas thinks difficult corporate times often offer an opportunity for risky designs to surface. "I'm very comfortable with the future here," he says. "I know what's going on in the back of these design studios. There's a lot of new stuff coming."

His role in the studio, he says, "is to scare the hell out of myself. That's important. Because it doesn't take long to get used to something once it's on the street."

Charles Fishman (cnfish@mindspring.com), a senior editor at Fast Company, is thinking about replacing his 1986 Honda Accord (it has 189,500 miles on it). Learn more about DaimlerChrysler on the Web (www.daimlerchrysler.com).

Sidebar: What's Fast

What drives distinctive design? According to Freeman Thomas, who assisted in the creation of two of this decade's most engaging cars -- VW's New Beetle and the Audi TT -- it isn't just one thing; it's a combination of honesty, intuition, collaboration, and open-mindedness.